A big shift for people looking to enter the home owners market in the Kamloops area.
Quinn Pache with Royal LePage in Kamloops says the real estate market is finally starting tip the other way.
“I’ve been saying its a sellers market for the last two years, but, I’m going to say this to you first… for the first time [since the cutting of interest rates due to the pandemic], we are now seeing a buyers market,” Pache told the NL Noon Report.
Pache says over the past two years, buyers were often stuck in “bidding war” situations, with some people offering as high as $200,000 over the asking price for a home.
“But now we are seeing places are getting listed, they are staying on the market for a couple of weeks, and then they’re selling for actually under the list price.”
However, Pache suggests interest in the housing market remains solid — just not the fervor of the past couple of years.
“That’s not to say there’s no bidding wars,” says Pache. “About a week and a half ago we were involved in a bidding war, and we actually won the bidding war, and we were still $50,000 under ask.”
Over the past two years, while the “sellers” market was on its high, Pache says there was quite a bit of market speculation from Vancouver-based investors coming in, and “snatching up properties, sight unseen.”
However, he says that trend appears to be over.
“For the first time, in the last two years, we have more available houses than we’ve had over that past time frame, because the houses that are coming on the market are not getting snatched up super quickly,” he suggests. “We’re seeing more and more people put their houses on the market at reasonable prices.”
Due to interest rates continuing to rise, “well above the 1.89 per cent or 2 per cent lows” seen during bidding wars market, according to Pache, he suggests there’s been a shift in the demographics of those who are hoping to purchase homes in Kamloops.
“What we are seeing now is a lot of first time home buyers trying to get into the market, and they are trying to get townhouses, or modular (homes) usually from $250,000, up to $500,000 for that starter home.”
At the same time, Pache points out there are varying needs for potential buyers at this stage, particularly those who are looking at entering the market for something like an apartment.
“Looking on the North Shore, people are looking for a trendy place that is up-and-coming, but like to walk to everything or take transit. Downtown, we have the beautiful new development there at City Gardens,” Pache points out. “But there is still a lot of people in Kamloops who… they have pets, or they have kids, or they need a space that’s a little bit bigger and they want a yard.”
“Buyers do have lots of choices, no matter what they’re looking for.”
As for the market hot-spots in Kamloops, Pache says there are trends that are being noted.
“We’re also seeing in Westsyde and Brock an uptick in people moving to those areas,” says Pache. “As interest rates go up, people are looking for a slightly more affordable option.”
Most economists polled are anticipating the Bank of Canada to increase interest rates by 0.75 per cent sometime this month in a bid to cool inflation.